June flew by and July was nearing. Summer had already approached and the temperatures were starting to rise.

Inside of a training ground.

—Clank! —Clank!

The heavy sound of metal resounded across the room.

"Ren, cover me!

"

Shouted Kevin as he quickly moved right of me. As his foot tapped on the ground, his body suddenly shot upwards.

"Huup—!

"

—Swoosh!

Right as Kevin's foot touched the ground, I drew a circle in the air and pointed my finger towards a certain spot in the distance. In the same direction, Kevin was headed.

"Thanks!

"

Twisted his body, Kevin quickly arrived before my ring. Putting his foot on the ring, he propelled his body towards the center of the room where a young girl leisurely stood.

"Haaa—!

"

Arriving before Monica, Kevin let out a shout and slashed his sword down.

"Hmm, not bad...

"

—Clank!

Lifting her sword with one hand, Monica easily blocked Kevin's attack.

"...but still not good enough

"

BAAAM—!

"Guuuh—!

"

"Khhuu!

"

Casually swinging her sword and parrying Kevin's attack, Kevin was instantly pushed in my direction.

Because of how fast he was going, I wasn't able to stop him in time and we soon both crashed against a wall.

"Kuegh...this is so unfair

"

I muttered as I laid down on the ground. My back hurt like hell.

"I agree...

"

Supporting his body with one arm, Kevin weakly stood up. Raising his sword, he glared in Monica's direction.

"Oh, you're not done? I like your fighting spirit

"

"Ren, stand up. It's not over yet

"

"Ugh...

"

Lifting my head, I let out a groan.

'Damn it, I just want to lay down on the ground for another minute. I'm the one who took the brunt of the attack, not you!'

Why couldn't he let me rest?

Putting my hand on my knee, I stood up and stretched my neck. My eyes soon interlocked with Kevin's.

"Seriously?

"

Without him even telling me what he wanted to do, I understood what he meant.

"Alright...

"

"Good

"

Nodding my head, I placed my hand on the grip of my sword. Kevin on the other hand raised his sword with both hands.

"Huuu...

"

Taking a deep breath, I channeled all the mana inside of my body. A white hue shrouded my body.

Kracka! Kracka!

Mixed within the white hue were blue bolts of lightning that repeatedly crackled in the air. By my side, an empowering red hue expanded from Kevin's body. He was also getting ready to attack.

"Oh? You guys planning on using your strongest techniques? Good, good, I want to see...

"

At the front, Monica's eyes lit up.

—Swoosh! —Swoosh!

"Let's see if you guys are any good

"

Waving her new sword in the air as if showing off, Monica taunted.

"Ready?

"

"Never been readier...

"

As the red hue around Kevin's body became especially empowering, Kevin looked at me. Looking back at him, I nodded my head.

"Let's go...

"

Kevin muttered as he slashed down.

VUUUUAM!

Instantly an enormous sword beam hurdled in Monica's direction. A powerful energy could be felt from the sword beam as a thick scar traced the path of the sword beam.

looking at Kevin's attack, I thought, 'Slashing down with both hands on the sword, so he's already reached that stage...'

Kevin could now perform the fifteenth movement of the Levisha style. Not bad at all.

"Still...

"

The third movement of the Keiki style : Void step

Not wanting to be outdone, after finally charging up, I took a stance. Moments after, the world around me turned dark and I found myself standing right before Monica.

"Huh?

"

My sudden appearance startled Monica who for a second didn't know what to do. Taking advantage of the opening I created, I aimed my sword attack towards her head.

Unfortunately, Monica was quickly able to recover from the shock.

"Not bad...

"

Faced with my and Kevin's attack, Monica smiled and muttered.

—Sha!

Tilted her neck to the side, to my horror, Monica easily dodged my attack.

After avoiding my attack, Monica casually swung her sword down and a small orange beam shot towards Kevin's sword beam.

—Craka!

As if made out of paper, Kevin's sword beam crumbled instantly.

"Haa...haaa...this is so unfair

"

Landing next to Monica, I got on my knees and took heavy breaths. On the other side of the room, Kevin slumped down on the ground and supported his body with his sword.

'Damn it'

Though I knew that the gap between me and an rank was huge, I didn't think it would be this huge.

Throughout the whole time, it was as though Monica was treating us like children. She made it seems as though our most powerful attacks were nothing but child's play in front of her.

"I'm impressed

"

Tracing her finger on the scar left behind by Kevin's sword beam, Monica complemented.

"To think that you guys were this strong. You guys were almost as good as me back when I was your age

"

Listening to Monica's shameless boast, my mouth twitched.

'Can't you be more humble?'

Unfortunately for me, I had designed Monica to be this way. If I had to complain, I could only complain to myself.

"Here, take this

"

Looking in my direction, Monica casually threw a book in my direction.

"This...

"

Catching the book, I didn't think too much at first, but my eyes soon shot wide open.

Quickly skimming through its contents, my heart started to race.

===

★★★✰ Quick-slash style

A sword art fully focused on speed. With one quick draw, the user gains the ability to kill an opponent without them noticing anything had happened. Created to replicate the Keiki style. After years of research, this sword art was the result.

===

"Is this for me?

"

With trembling hands, I looked at Monica.

"Yup, since you need to hide your sword art, I decided to give you a little gift. The sword art is three and a half stars, but given the criteria, this was the best I could find

"

Putting her sword away, Monica nodded her head.

"You don't like it?

"

"No, no, of course, I like it. There's no way I wouldn't like it

"

I quickly shook my head.

'How can I not like this? It's perfect!'

With how popular Grandmaster Keiki was, the idea of someone trying to imitate his sword art wasn't strange.

In fact, there were many sword arts similar to the Keiki style in circulation at the moment, but after a quick skim through, I would just toss them away.

Tho call them imitations was already a compliment. They were not even close to their real thing.

This, however, was different.

Although it was still far off from the Keiki style, visually it wasn't. Meaning that the techniques looked exactly like the Keiki style!

'That's right...'

If I practiced this sword art, I could now use the Keiki style whenever I wished without arousing too much attention.

Though it would only limit me to the basic movements, this made things much easier for me.

"I don't know what to say, thank you, Miss Jeffrey

"

"Hmph, since I am your instructor I'll naturally take care of you

"

Snorting, Monica looked away. From the side, I could see Monica's ears turning red. She was trying her best to hide her embarrassment.

'Ah right, forgot she was weak to compliments'

Despite how boastful and shameless appeared to be, Monica was in fact extremely weak to compliments.

Just one compliment was enough to set her off.

"If you guys perform badly, I'm going to look bad so I must do my best to make you guys stronger for when the tournament comes

"

Still trying her best to hide her embarrassment, in a stern tone Monica added.

''...but, no one actually knows you're coaching us'

I voiced inside of my heart. Of course, only in my heart. Had I actually said it out loud, given Monica's personality, I would be in for another round of beating.

Wasn't looking forward to that.

"Kevin, for you I don't have anything. Unlike Ren over here, you already have another sword art, so just use that. Try your best to not use the Levisha style

"

Kevin did in fact have another four-star sword art. He was also quite skilled with it.

Hiding the Levisha style wasn't going to be a problem for him.

"Understood

"

Kevin and I said in sync.

"Alright, that's it for today's lesson. You guys can both go back.

"

Turning around, Monica quickly left the training ground leaving Kevin and I heavily panting on the ground.

...

"Go!

"

—Swooosh!

Throwing a metal ball forward, a young petite girl shouted. Following her shout, a furry brown creature flew past her and quickly caught up with the ball.

—Crunch!

Appearing before the metal ball, the furry creature quickly bit down on the metal and completely crushed it.

"Good job, Newton!

"

Clapping her hands, the young girl, Ava, rushed towards the furry creature.

Upon closer look, the furry creature looked to be a brown bird with sharp eyes.

The bird was in fact, a sharp-clawed sparrow.

An ranked creature that even now Ava had some trouble taming. With the sparrow being stronger than her, Ava had a hard time controlling it fully as it would oftentimes not heed her command.

Fortunately, things seemed to have been getting better for her recently as Newton, her contracted beast, was starting to become more and more obedient.

This was generally a good sign for monster tamers.

"Go, Newton!

"

Taking out another metal ball, Ava threw it in the air.

"Newton?

"

—Thud!

With a large thud, the ball fell to the ground. This time Newton did not catch the ball. Rather it did not even glance at the ball.

"A bust...

"

Dejectively lowering her head, Ava moved to pick up the metal ball.

'If only I was born as talented...'

Ava was not an only child, she had three older siblings. All of whom were way more talented than her.

Despite her family treating her just like all of her other siblings, Ava truly felt inferior to her siblings.

During family dinners, she would always be the one to talk the least as her talent and achievements were not worth talking about, unlike her siblings who always had something to talk about.

She hated that.

Ava wanted to let others know of her skills and talent. She wanted to proudly boast her powers like her siblings.

She wanted to get complimented by her parents.

She wanted to be acknowledged.

'Alas, that's only a distant dream of mine'

Looking at Newton, who had already flown towards a nearby tree, Ava sighed.

"Newton come back down!

"

—Ring! —Ring!

Right as she was calling for Newton to get down, her phone suddenly rang. Confused, Ava looked at the caller ID.

Uknown

"Unknown? Who could this be?

"

Hesitating on whether she should pick it up or not, Ava eventually picked it up and answered the call.

"Hello? Who's this?

"

—Ava, it's me. Mind if we meet up?

Answering the call, a bright voice entered Ava's ears. She instantly recognized the owner of the voice.

"Ren?

"